• PAYING school fees enables learning institutions construct more classroom blocks, sink boreholes and pay salaries to supporting staff.

By Potipher Tembo –

IN Lusaka last week, a group of Grade 12 Munali Secondary School pupils rushed to the media to complain about the school’s administration refusing to allow them pay their examination fees because they had not settled their school fees in form of user fees and projects funds.
While this was happening in Lusaka, a team of pupils in Ndola who did not want to name the school they had come from walked to the press to lament about the same problem.
In recent times, many pupils across the country are faced with the problem of their parents or guardians failing to pay their school fees and when time for paying examination fees approached, there was panic as school administrators were eager to recover thousands of kwacha which parents and guardians failed to pay during normal learning time.
In October, Grade 12 pupils throughout the country will be writing their final examinations.
In November, the Grade Nine pupils will be sitting for their examinations while the Grade Seven pupils will be writing theirs.
The examinations the Grade 12 pupils will be writing will determine whether they will qualify to go to colleges or universities while the examinations the Grade Nine pupils will be sitting for will either see them continue with senior secondary school education, tertiary education or drop out of schools and the examinations the Grade Seven pupils will be sitting for will either enable them to secure places in secondary schools or not.
However, it is government’s policy to provide free education in Zambia, especially at primary school level.
The government gives grants to schools to help them with the goings-on, but the money which is given to schools in form of grants is not enough to carry on with school requirements.
It is for this reason that the government allowed government school administrators to engage with parents so that they form Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) and School Boards which were mandated with the running of the affairs of schools.
When PTAs were formed, parents agreed with the rules that were put forth to help schools achieve certain goals which included school projects among others.
For the projects to take place and because government grants are minimal, parents agreed that they would be contributing by paying user fees and projects funds for their children who were attending government schools because these were the funds which were meant to enable the schools do the projects and other requirements such as paying salaries or wages to supporting staff like sanitary workers, office orderlies, guards and cleaners.
However, few parents meet the PTA requirement of paying school fees while many parents have ignored this completely.
The question is: How are schools going to be run without funds coming from parents as PTA members?
According to many government school administrators, they find it very difficult to run their schools without money because government grants are not enough and they had to depend on project funds and user fees paid by parents to run their institutions.
“It is not easy. Many parents don’t pay school fees and we cannot chase away the children from schools for not paying school fees because it is against government policy. Some pupils who are in Grade 12 and have paid their examination fees have not paid their school fees from Grade 10, 11 and 12 and the school is owed thousands of kwacha in uncollected school fees,” said a Ndola head teacher who decided to remain anonymous.
The story was the same at a number of government schools visited in Ndola’s Masala, Lubuto and Chifubu townships.
This being the case, PTA and boards which represent parents whose children attend government schools have made earnest appeals to parents and guardians who do not pay for their children to own up and meet their obligations as responsible parents.
Chifubu Secondary School PTA chairperson, Lemmy Ndebele said it was important for parents to invest in their children through education.
Mr Ndebele said it was sad to see parents failing to be responsible for their children’s future and yet wanted them to go to school even when they did not pay school fees.
“The problem is that we have been spoon-fed for too long and we are used to getting free things. Schools, especially secondary schools, have a lot of projects to be done and these can only be achieved through funds paid by the parents. We have a duty to support our children in schools by ensuring that we pay user fees and projects funds for them,” said Mr Ndebele.
Temweni Secondary School PTA chairperson, Philip Hachubi share Mr Ndebele’s sentiments by saying, there was need for parents to help schools where their children attended classes by paying school fees as agreed by boards and PTAs.
Mr Hachubi said developmental projects at government schools were suffering because of non-payment of fees by parents.
“The projects can only take shape based on money paid by parents. There is need to rub off the notion that there is free education,” Mr Hachubi said.
He said boards and the PTA involved themselves in raising funds to enable them construct classroom blocks to decongest classes, sink boreholes to have enough water for ablution blocks and to pay supporting staff and these could only be achieved if parents paid school fees for their children.
Kansenshi Primary School chairperson, Clever Mwempe added his concern when he said parents had a duty to look after the affairs of their school going children and it was important for them to support their children through paying money requested by schools through PTA and boards.
“It is important for us parents to support our children. When you don’t pay for your children, they feel embarrassed in class knowing that they were benefitting through other children whose parents paid school fees and their concentration in class would be low. The free education syndrome by many parents should be removed. We are what we are today because of the support of our parents,” said Mr Mwempe.
One of the Grade 12 pupils talked to in Lubuto whose school fees have not been paid for in Grade 10, 11 and 12 lamented that it was embarrassing to be among those pupils whose parents could not pay school fees and yet they wanted him to go to school.
Apart from parents failing to pay school fees for their children, there are some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which support Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) in schools, but sadly, many of these NGOs do not fulfill their obligations of paying school fees for the children they are supposed to be helping and meanwhile, the children continue attending classes free of charge.
PTA treasurer for Temweni Secondary School, John Chima said some NGOs had a lot of children they were supposed to be supporting but they too, were defaulting.
“We know that things are difficult, but parents should get committed and pay for the education of their children. Even the running of examinations, it is the project funds and user fees which are used to buy chemicals, utensils and other items needed for examinations for pupils taking sciences and these are very expensive,” said MrChima.
He pointed out that 80 per cent of financial inputs at government schools were contributed by the PTA. Mr Chima saw no reason why some parents should fail to pay for their children and instead benefit from what other parents paid.
Mr Dennis Shawa who is board member said most parents had a negative attitude towards paying school fees.
He said in most cases, parents deliberately defaulted in paying school fees in the sense that they prefer paying fees for their children who go to non-government schools.
Mr Shawa said parents meet the obligation of paying school fees on time in non-Government schoolas because their children are not allowed in class until they pay, yet they do not pay for those pupils who are in government schools.
He said the government put boards and PTAs in place to identify pupils who were vulnerable and those who were capable of paying but it seemed many parents were deliberately behaving like vulnerable parents.
“The money realised by boards and the PTA is the money used to run schools. How could boards and the PTA run schools without resources? No matter how intelligent a child can be, they cannot perform without the necessary materials like books which schools need to buy using boards and PTA funds,” said Mr Shawa.
He urged government to instead monitor boards and PTA with the help of District Education Board Secretaries (DEBS and also ensure that parents paid school fees for their children.
Since many schools banked on project funds and user fees, PTA plan their budgets on grades eight and 10 pupils because these are the classes which pay user fees and projects funds at once as they are desperate to secure places in respective schools while grades nine, 11 and 12 do not care since they were already in classes.
“Parents and guardians who have pupils in grades nine, 11 and 12 do not care about paying the money they owe schools. We encourage the parents to fulfill their obligations of educating their children by paying school fees because no one else can do it for them,” said Ndebele.
However, whether or not parents are reluctant to pay school fees for their children, the pupils must not be stopped to attend classes and must be allowed to pay examination fees.
Acting Ndola District Commissioner Taphen Mulongo said PTAs should find other means of collecting money from defaulting parents other than refusing to accept examination fees or chasing away the pupils from schools.
Mr Mulongo urged a combined team of PTA members who called on him to seek ways of helping them in recovering thousands of kwacha in uncollected school fees to engage with parents and explain to them the importance of paying school fees and projects funds amicably instead of punishing the innocent pupils by chasing them and refusing them to pay examination fees.
Nevertheless, PTA committee and board members have from time to time engaged with parents to discuss the issues of school fees but these meetings have not yielded any tangible results.
In the past, schools used to recover money owed to them by defaulting parents during the time of collecting results.
During this time, school administrators refused to give out results until the pupils’ parents or guardians cleared the money owed to them as school fees. Because parents wanted their children to continue with education, especially at tertiary level, they needed to have statements of results for them to be accepted in colleges, universities or simply, to institutions of higher learning.
But with the latest technology and computer age at hand, pupils easily access information on internet where examination results are posted and defaulting parents just browse to know the results.
Those defaulting parents whose children pass in their examinations have no choice but to clear what they owe for them to get the physical results from schools. But those whose children fail simply forget and do not go back to schools to clear the outstanding amounts which this means that schools lose out.
With this scenario, there is need to ensure that parents who default face the law as some PTAs are contemplating by suing defaulting parents.
In February last year, parents with pupils at Chadiza Day Secondary School in Eastern Province resolved to take to court their colleagues who failed to meet their children’s needs as school fees.
The resolution was passed during the PTA annual general meeting. This was after it was observed that some parents had made it a habit not to get involved in financial contributions to school programmes through payment of school fees.
As things currently stand, it remains to be seen how government schools will operate effectively without the help from parents through PTA user fees and projects funds.